Major update in Alex Pretti shooting as federal agents placed on leave
The border patrol agents involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti have been placed on leave.
Pretti was fatally shot in Minneapolis on January 24 in what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) say was a move of self defence by the officers. The ICU nurse, who was armed with a firearm he was legally permitted to, did not show any evidence he was going to use the weapon against the Border Control officers.
A Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson has now confirmed to CBS that 'two officers involved are on administrative leave'. The outlet notes this is the standard protocol after such a shooting.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who heads up ICE and Border Patrol, was asked about the protocol following the death of Renee Good earlier this month.
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"We are following the exact same investigative and review process that we always have under ICE and under the Department of Homeland Security and within the administration," Noem stated.
"The exact same policy that the Biden administration used, the exact same review, so we haven’t changed any of that."
As per CBS News, former special agent Scott Sweetow detailed the typical process for agents following a incident similar to what has happened to Pretti.
He explained: "That's both to protect the agency, to protect the person and frankly to protect the public from someone who may really be rattled when they're out there because they've had to use deadly force and you don't want them back out there engaging in a situation where they could use deadly force again."
While that investigation remains ongoing, Donald Trump spoke to Fox News following a turbulent few weeks in the US.
"Both of them were terrible. The other was terrible too. I'm not sure about his parents, but I know her parents were big Trump fans," the president said of Pretti and Good's deaths.
Speaking of the former's in particular, the POTUS added: "I think the whole thing is terrible. I don't like the fact that he was carrying a gun, that was fully loaded, and he had two magazines with him.
"It's pretty unusual. But nobody knows when they saw the gun, how they saw the gun. Bottom line is that it was terrible."
Trump continued: "Makes me feel bad anyway, but I guess you could say even worse - they were tremendous Trump people, Trump fans. And their daughter was, I don't know if you can say radicalized, maybe radicalized, maybe not, I don't know.
"But I hate to see it, I hate to see it."
Callum Jones